OUR VIEW: Honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day

THUMBS UP to the local and regional events taking place in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday. Bristol Community College's annual Community Breakfast to honor the life and ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will feature a keynote address from Bard College Professor and author Dr. Myra Young Armstead.

THUMBS UP to the local and regional events taking place in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday. Bristol Community College's annual Community Breakfast to honor the life and ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will feature a keynote address from Bard College Professor and author Dr. Myra Young Armstead.

The 8:30 a.m. breakfast at the Commonwealth College Center, and program are free, but attendees are asked to bring new socks and underwear, birthday gifts, toothbrushes, toothpaste, other toiletries, baby safety items, arts and crafts supplies, school supplies, and gift cards for teens for the SouthCoast Serves pack project, included below.

Meanwhile, SouthCoast Serves, a UMass Dartmouth and Leduc Center for Civic Engagement collaborative, will honor King, inviting all community members to participate in a march to GiftstoGive, 21 Cove St., New Bedford, at 9 a.m. Monday, where volunteers will take part in the pack project, offering gift packs to needy local children. The march, following a teach-in, leaves from Roosevelt Junior High School in New Bedford.

THUMBS UP to the contract agreement reached between the Fall River Educators' Association and the School Committee. The pact, which would run through Aug. 31, 2017, was overwhelmingly approved by union members and now must be approved by the School Committee. It's great that the two sides were able to hammer out the contract, which seems to be a good deal for all involved.

THUMBS UP to a $2.5 million state grant that will help restore Father Travassos Park. The revitalized park in the Flint will be 4 acres, and include soccer fields, basketball and tennis courts and other amenities. The public will be able to get a peek at the possible park plans at a Jan. 29 meeting at Government Center. The Flint Neighborhood Association, which has maintained the park for the past several years, had been seeking about $800,000 for improvements, so the Urban Parks Initiative grant will go much farther.

THUMBS UP to new Fall River Fire Chief Robert Viveiros, whose $136,000 contract was approved by the City Council on Tuesday. Viveiros, the former deputy chief who scored the highest on the civil service exam, takes the place of retired Fire Chief William Silvia, whose 18-month contract expired Dec. 31. Viveiros should serve the city well as fire chief.

THUMBS UP to the nearly $456,000 state-funded Shannon grant, which is intended to help combat youth violence, including street outreach to engage youth considered high risk for gang involvement. On the heels of the bad news related to a number of recent violent incidents, including a murder, and the good news that the city's violent crime rates have declined over three years, such programs are an important proactive means of preventing violence and crime.